I don't care for the black covers - I don't actually dislike them, and I have no objection to the idea of doing 'classy' covers to attract readers who might mistake Discworld for children's books or 'zany' and 'wacky' based on the Josh Kirby covers. I just think that the photographic covers lack something.

I am still enormously fond of the Kirby covers - they're so iconic of the DW now. And I love Kidby's covers too, he really is a marvel for getting the characters right.

But I can see the need for something that doesn't look so genre-bound. Kidby's work isn't cartoony like Kirby's but just by dint of being an illustration on the front of a novel it immediately positions the books as 'fantasy' or 'for kids' and it's a shame that readers might miss out because they think that the series is just for those people. There's been a move in recent years to present 'serious' fantasy in less genre-fied covers (e.g. George R.R. Martin's Song Of Ice And Fire) and I do think Discworld could benefit from something like this in addition to our beloved Kirby/Kidby editions.

As an illustrator and designer, suffice to say I've never put much stock in 'never judge a book by its cover'

This thread is high in the Google results for people looking for the black cover editions of the Discworld series.

After I did a lot of searching, including some helpful comments in the thread, I have manged to find the ISBN numbers for all the black cover editions my collection was missing. Some of these only seem to show up on amazon by the ISBN number, not by searching by title.

To help anybody else looking for the back cover editions I have made a webpage at http://www.toxicwaster.com/discworld-black-covers.html it lists the ISBN-13 and ISBN-10 numbers for all black cover editions that are available and contains a link to each one on amazon.co.uk. I will keep it updated as and when any more are released. If anyone has any comments or corrections them let me know.

I hope this is useful to someone, it certainly would have been useful to me

Has anyone thought of removing all the hardback dust covers and leaving them bare?I've picked up some sticky-back plastic in the sales, and I'm thinking of replacing all my covers and just having gold lettering atop of my Discworld bookshelf.What do other people do with the dust covers? I've always left them on the books, but they're getting tatty and perhaps it would be best to cut them up and save the art.*thinking*

You can get dustsheet covers - like they use on library books to preserve the dust cover. A book will have a lot more value with the original dust cover, so they are worth protecting. When I have a new Pratchett first edition, I remove the dust cover and place it as if it were a book, on my bookshelf, I then slip the book inside an old library book plastic cover until I have read it and then reunite book and dust cover. I have to say that with Raising Steam, I actually splashed out and got the Kindle version as well as the hardback. Consequently, the hardback has never actually been opened.

I've said before that it would be good for publishing if they offered a free Kindle download of the book when people buy a first edition hardback.

“Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.” – Blaise Pascal

Slantaholic wrote:I've picked up some sticky-back plastic in the sales, and I'm thinking of replacing all my covers and just having gold lettering atop of my Discworld bookshelf.What do other people do with the dust covers? I've always left them on the books, but they're getting tatty and perhaps it would be best to cut them up and save the art.

Sticky-back plastic would severely damage the books, removing any first-edition value, and nobody has yet tested it for long-term discoloration and breaking down. Given the history of plastics in general and of transparent tape in particular, I would advise against it. Many librarians and book collectors have sadly learned that when the people advertising transparent tape said it was the perfect way to repair books, they lied. Within a few years it yellowed, it broke, and the glue chemistry damaged the pages and then lost its stickiness and fell off, leaving a more-damaged book.There are non-harmful archival quality transparent bookjacket covers available (Brodart brand is one) that cover the dust covers and protect them, as well as protecting the book. I think it would be possible to adapt them to cover the book itself without harming the book. I suppose you could put the cover in another plastic protector and either store them in a flatpack or hang them on the walls if you like the pictures. They add a significant amount to first-edition value should you or your heirs ever decide to sell. Dealers will mention in ads whether a book's jacket is Brodart-protected.

Oh. Thank you very much for all your advice, Tamar and Tony Black.You'd be pleased to hear that I haven't done so yet, but unfortunately I need a bare book, and I can't find my cover to UA, so later in the year that's for the chop. It appears that, unlike Mr Slant's lawyers, I cannot have a bookshelf filled with hardback books with gold intialing, protected with sticky-back plastic.